Wednesday, May 03, 2006

You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.

Muhammed in Hell (Dante's Inferno - Canto XXVIII)

Melanie McDonagh makes the point in this month’s Oldie (requires subscription)that Muhammed was not a very nice man.

"There comes a time when an untruth that has been repeated so often as to become a platitude becomes suddenly unbearable. It has happened to me when journalists refer to Muhammed as a ‘peace-loving prophet’. Respecting the sensitivities of our Muslim friends and neighbours is one thing; turning reality on its head is another."

She goes on to relate the history of Muhammed from his preaching in Mecca through his disappointment that the Christians and Jews of the Arabia did not heed his message, his harassment and raids on the merchants of Mecca, the expulsion of the Jews of Medina and culminating in the slaughter of the Jews of Banu Qurayza.

2 Comments:

Not to mention his 9 year old wife (allegedly). But "an angel" told him it was alright, so I suppose we can overlook that.

I think people have a tendency to over-complicate the issue of dialogue with Islam. Our Lord was pretty straightforward:

"Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect." (Mt. 24: 11)

"Her prophets cover them with whitewash, pretending to visions that are false and performing lying divinations, saying, "Thus says the Lord GOD," although the LORD has not spoken." (Ezekiel 28: 28)

St. John was equally 'intolerant' of false prophets:

"Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh be longs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world."(1 Jn. 4: 1-3)

Of course one must be tactful and humble if one actually engages a truth seeking Muslim in discussion, but all this guff about 'a religion of peace' really gets my goat.

I seem to recall our Holy Father being asked at a press conference early on in his papacy whether he thought Islam was a religion of peace; to which he responded with masterful equivocation, "I would not like to generalise."